Happy New Year!

my Christmas cactus decided to bloom last week right before we left. :)

What a wonderful, wonderful trip to Boise. This year we decided to gift each other a family photo, cookies and an ornament per family rather than buying individual gifts for everyone. And wow, to see how each family interpreted that was so much fun. I'm especially happy to look at the bar off my kitchen to see a row of smiling family faces...I miss them!

Now that Christmas is over, it is by no means the end of gift-giving, though. In the next four weeks, we have 3 birthdays coming one after another. After spending some time with Emma last week, I was inspired to make her a dolly blanket from my yarn scraps so I whipped that up yesterday. It was so easy and fun to do. One of the stripes is from yarn that I used to make her baby blanket five years ago (sniff, sniff). She loves to draw so we are also going to put together a sketchbook with some colored pencils for her. I had so much fun sitting with her as she drew and told me what was happening in each picture.

Little miss mouse (Emily) is going to be turning two a week before Emma, so I think she's due for her own tutu. She followed the big girls around as they danced 'ballet' for us and held her skirt in her right hand like she was a little lady. Too cute.

Well, a happy new year to you all!